Last night marked the end of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, which ran for seven great seasons. Sure, it never got high ratings, but it did bring the phrase “Treat Yourself” into the lexicon. Let’s see Two and a Half Men invent something that gives you an excuse to go shopping for toys.

Parks and Rec was good for more than just a laugh (although, it delivered plenty of those), it marks the end of an era for network sitcoms as NBC tries to wade in the murky waters of the current TV landscape of streaming and cable. There was something about Parks and Rec that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside each time the opening credits rolled.

But there is something else that sets it apart from all other sitcoms. All of you literary snobs out there might be familiar with the Great American Novel, which is the idea that one book possibly encapsulates the culture and values of the United States. Some think its The Great Gatsby. Others say its The Catcher in the Rye. I say its whatever you were forced to read in English class during sophomore year of high school. Anyway, the idea of America seems to hard to capture in just one thing, but if there ever was a Great American Sitcom, it would be Parks and Recreation.

And why not? If something is going to be “great” and “American,” it might as well be a TV show, which has the luxury of time to explore a lot of huge ideas. And much like our soft drinks and our cars, the idea of America might be just a bit too big.

Parks and Rec is a beautifully uncynical look at American politics, highlighting everything from the inefficiency to the effectiveness of local government. If you have ever attended any kind of public forum, then the town hall meetings depicted on the show, which mainly turned into (sometimes physical) shouting matches, rang all too true. Parks’ satire extended far beyond the reaches of bureaucracy; it always seemed to have a strong grasp on the lexicon. After all, season seven was set in the future and was partially about data mining and drones. From Entertainment 720 to Gryzzl, Parks and Rec was about the only show on television addressing startup culture. That is, of course, until Silicon Valley came along.

Part of what makes this show the Great American Sitcom is that each character inhabits and defines some part of the social or political landscape. Wide-eyed Leslie Knope embodies strength, optimism, and the idea that people actually want to do good things for each other. For years, Ron Swanson was her ideological counterpart. As a libertarian who enjoys hiding out in his cabin in the woods, Swanson is basically Henry David Thoreau by way of Ron Paul. Despite their differing beliefs, the two of them formed one of the truest friendships in TV history. Mainly, they were able to find common ground over JJ’s Diner, a Pawnee institution. Seriously, is there anything more perfectly American than kibitzing in a diner? Edward Hopper probably wants to create a painting about it.

One of the most impressive parts about Parks was its ability to give life to its entire ensemble. Plenty of other American archetypes were present as well. Beloved Jerry (or Garry or Larry or Terry) represents the mentality of doing the least amount of work possible that still gets you paid and home to your family. So of course, he became the mayor. Tom is the worst of the tech bubble, yet for every terrible idea he had, there was one or two that he actually put a lot of thought into. This show had such a bright and sunny point of view that, in the end, Tom’s greatest success ended up being a book he wrote about all of his failures. Few things define the show as well as that.

At first, it might sound strange to label this as the Great American Sitcom. When people look for the Great American TV Show, they probably look right to HBO. Sure, it is just human nature to view the current time as dark and gritty. But Parks and Rec is the show people will look at in the future when they want to feel nostalgic for the 2010s. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, but it plays into what is so great about this show. Parks and Rec is partially about the America that exists, but mostly about the one that should exist. What Michael Schur, Greg Daniels, and Amy Poehler have put together is an America in which red tape is no obstacle and goals can actually be accomplished. It showed that it takes a lot of hard work to get these things done, but they are not impossible. This is the kind of skeptical optimism not seen anymore. Cynicism is fun and funny at times, but at a certain point it just gets unproductive.

The fictional town of Pawnee which Leslie Knope and her work family inhabits is a special place. Sure, it isn’t perfect. It’s a little unsanitary and it suffers from a candy addiction. The neighboring town of Eagleton seems a lot nicer from a distance. However, Pawnee is a place that all of these people can love and call home both in spite of and because of its flaws. And thus, the most truthful and nuanced view of patriotism came from a sitcom on NBC once meant to be nothing more than a spinoff of The Office. I would say that I want to move to Pawnee, but I feel like I already live there, because Pawnee is both the America that currently exists, as well as what America could potentially become.

Goodbye Harris.

Image via Reddit

I swear if somebody tells me that it’s the Golden Age of Television one more time…

Look, I’m not saying that this isn’t an amazing time for TV. All I am saying is that labeling one year as a golden age sets you up for future failure and disappointment. For instance, people who label the 1930s and 40s as the golden age of film completely disregard the amazing work done in later years. Plus, Gone with the Wind is sort of racist and Citizen Kane is kind of boring.

Earlier this year, some critics said the golden age of television was over. Really? Then how do you account for the fact that over half my list is freshman shows? As everything migrates towards cable and the web, TV is changing and currently on a curve of exponential growth. This is my first TV top ten list, because this is the first year that I feel like I watched enough shows that I could list ten and have a few honorary mentions.

It is amazing how diverse this year’s TV selections are. My list contains fantasy lands, New York during multiple different time periods, and a lot of talking animals. I don’t want to say that television is currently better than film, but I understand what the whack jobs who say that are talking about. Without further adieu, here is my list of the ten best shows of 2014:

10. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver In an incredible hot streak that lasted from May through November, Last Week Tonight provided the sharpest political satire on television. John Oliver took on everything from dictators to FIFA and managed to shed light on a lot of stories that actual journalists were doing a terrible job reporting. Oliver’s greatest gift is that he can take complex issues (net neutrality, civil forfeiture) and make them both funny and digestible. Oh, and every once in a while space geckos and supreme court justice dogs appear.

Best Episode: Episode #1.6

9. The Knick While you were busy covering your eyes during every insanely grizzly surgery scene, The Knick was busy closing the divide between film and television. It is an unflinching look at America at the turn of the twentieth century. It’s a history lesson that never feels like one because it doesn’t gloss over the squalor and the prejudice. Every episode is directed by Steven Soderbergh; slums, brothels, and ruptured body parts have never looked this pretty.

Best Episode: Method and Madness

8. Review The premise of Review is simple: a man hosts a show and instead of reviewing art or food, he reviews life experiences. At first, this show is about how far this premise can go before going horribly wrong. But then, around episode three, it becomes something else. Andy Daly turns the character of Forrest MacNeil into a sociopath disguised as a nerd. There is something always so wonderfully playful about Review, even as it dives deep into the darkest depths of the human soul.

Best Episode: Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes

7. Game of Thrones Game of Thrones has reached that level of popularity that makes you want to punch every person who tells you that you have to watch it. Right now, every person in America (including myself), is that person. Epic in scope and scale, Game of Thrones has earned every bit of its popularity. And while splitting adaptations in half never seems to work (see Mockingjay), season four was only half of a book and yet it felt complete. This season felt the need to kill off as many characters as possible. Hey, anything George R.R. Martin can do to give us constant anxiety attacks.

Best Episode: The Mountain and the Viper

6. True Detective I still have no idea what True Detective is about, and that is precisely the point of it. After months of hype and scrutiny, now is the perfect time to look back and appreciate the sheer beauty and ballsiness of True Detective. It is very easy to get lost in the story, but that is part of the point. While figuring out who the Yellow King is can be fun and all, being just as confused as the main characters are is truly the best way to watch it. True Detective is already an instant classic, with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey doing the best work of their careers. McConaughey might have won the Oscar earlier this year for Dallas Buyers Club, but his performance as Rust Cohle in True Detective is what he will be remembered for for the rest of his life.

Best Episode: Who Goes There 5. Orange is the New Black Season two of the show that changed Netflix was a vast improvement on a first season that was already very strong. By taking a lot of the focus off of Piper, season two gave us backstories for a lot more prisoners who were just in the background in earlier episodes. We also got to mingle with wardens and security guards much more this season, and we got a larger sense of the history of the prison. It is always nice when a TV show takes time to actually explore the world it inhabits.

Best Episode: We Have Manners. We’re Polite.

4. Kroll Show Season two showed a much more focused Kroll Show. This is not so much sketch comedy as it is a series of overlapping vignettes. From the Oh, Hello guys to Publizity, Nick Kroll has created a genius comedic world in which reality stars and bouncers are the heroes. Recently, Kroll announced that season three of Kroll Show would be its last. This is a show that has had a vision since day one, and the fact that it has already picked out an expiration date shows how committed it is to the promises it once made. Imagine if The Office or The Simpsons did that. The world would be a better place and there would be no Ebola and stuff.

Best Episode: Sponsored by Stamps

3. Broad City Finally, a TV show about broke New Yorkers who don’t live in unrealistically huge apartments. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer’s popular web series was adapted into a half hour show by Comedy Central in what is arguably the greatest achievement in the network’s recent renaissance. Broad City is often described as a female Workaholics. A more accurate comparison is to Louie. While a lot of the humor is broad (that’s a compliment), Broad City typically borders on surreal. On any given day, you can get your dreams crushed and still do something amazing. Broad City is hilarious, heartfelt, and relatable on so many levels (running to catch a train at Grand Central; trying to get people to come to your art exhibition).

Best Episode: Destination Wedding

2. Fargo A televised adaptation of a Coen Brothers classic sounds like a bad idea waiting to happen. Hollywood is a town that is filled with bad ideas, but it is good execution that makes all the difference. Less a remake and more a continuation, Fargo flawlessly imitates the voice of the Coen Brothers. It is an acting tour de force for everybody involved (especially Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks). While it is an hour long drama, I am going to go ahead and classify it as a dark comedy. Fargo creates fanboys where you didn’t know they existed. You know how comic book fans get so psyched whenever a Captain America movie references Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or something else in the Marvel universe? That is exactly how I felt whenever Fargo made a reference to A Serious Man or No Country for Old Men. This is brilliant fan fiction for cinephiles.

Best Episode: Who Shaves the Barber?

1. Bojack Horseman I have spent the better part of the past few months trying to convince people to watch Bojack Horseman. A normal reaction I get is, “I couldn’t get past episode one.” To that I say, “seriously, just be patient.” Bojack is both everything I have ever wanted from a TV show and everything I thought a TV show like this could never give me. If you haven’t watched Bojack, it’s about a washed up 90s sitcom star (Will Arnett), who just so happens to be a talking horse, and his attempt to make a comeback. Think of him as a much more despicable version of Valerie Cherish.

In the world of Bojack Horseman, talking animals co-exist with humans, and nobody questions this. While the animals wear clothes, drive cars, and get married, the tortoise is still slow and the dog still loves to chase the mailman. For years, I have fantasized of an animated show like this. So, watching this show was partially like seeing my dreams come true. The biggest miracle that Bojack pulls off is matching silliness with sincerity. Bojack is a serious study of depression, and the best portrayal of loneliness I have ever seen.

Among the many great portrayals of Hollywood that I can think of, few of them do this good a job of showing a town where perhaps everybody is working real hard to hide a deep pit of sadness in their life. In just one season, this show has established a singularly unique and dark point of view. Oh yeah, and there’s also a running gag where three kids are standing on each other in a trench suit, and nobody catches on. Bojack Horseman expresses all of the feelings, and tells all of the jokes, that you always wished you did.

Best Episode: The Telescope

Honorable Mention: The Mindy Project- This is the show I most look forward to watching every week. This smart and hilarious workplace comedy is the closest thing network television has to 30 Rock right now. Plus, Chris Messina’s glasses are the funniest prop on all of television.

Other Contenders: The Comeback, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rick and Morty, Mad Men, Louie, Veep, Silicon Valley, Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation, Inside Amy Schumer

Still Haven’t Seen: Transparent, Hannibal, You’re the Worst

“Well actually, the best TV show of the year is Serial” -The idiot you’re never going to invite to any of your dinner parties ever again

Image via Comedy Central

“Life. It’s literally all we have. But is it any good?”

The Comedy Central Renaissance is as strong as ever. Kroll Show, Broad City, and Inside Amy Schumer got a new sibling this season.

Review has a simple enough premise that it doesn’t seem to have any legs: instead of reviewing movies or books, a man gets a show and reviews life experiences. This is enough for a self-contained cartoon. Luckily, Review goes way beyond the initial promise of its premise. We could use more of that in this world, because very few TV shows and films ever do.

Review stars Andy Daly as life reviewer Forrest MacNeil. As his name suggests, Forrest is the dweeby stereotype of a critic. He’s has glasses, hair parted to the side, and the plainest looking suit you can imagine. He looks about as straight edge as any person could be. That makes it all the funnier to see him put into situations where he’s fighting either the law or his own insanity. Review is more than just a concept: it’s a character study.

Much has already been said about the third episode of Review, in which Forrest must review divorce and therefore has to divorce his wife. Usually, a show won’t pull a gut punch like this until much later in its run, when viewers are comfortable with the world and are ready for something to change. It might help that it was based off an Australian show with the exact same concept, but Review had the confidence to get serious so quickly. Then, it had the chutzpah to sandwich that divorce between two different pancake eating contests. Only Forrest MacNeil could turn a challenge to eat 30 pancakes into some cosmic event that connects to the human experience as a whole.

If Review had been made by anybody else, each episode might have existed in a bubble. In some shows, characters can cause damage and blow giant amounts of money. In the next episode, it is as if none of those things actually happened. That is not the case in Review, though. When Forrest spends $70,000 on a date with Ashley Tisdale at a charity auction, he is still in debt the next episode. When his car gets stolen after a fit of road rage, it is never to be seen again. To watch Review is to watch a man’s life completely unravel before his eyes, and it is all his fault.

This all sounds really dark because Review is really dark. Yet, it is the darkness that makes the show so funny. In the episode where Forrest must go to space, a tragedy that occurs while amongst the stars is funnier than it has any right to be. And the joke keeps going on and on. The further it goes, the funnier and more uncomfortable it ultimately gets. Review very rarely relies on simple one-liners. It is the kind of show that gets funnier on repeat viewings. In a very short time, it has also built up a huge cast of unique characters. It is always such a joy to watch Forrest go from uptight to unwound in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, the supporting cast is solid, too. Just watch the way Megan Stevenson (who plays Forrest’s co-host A.J. Gibbs) reacts every time Forrest comes back from one of his field assignments. Their awkward chemistry is one of the most underrated parts of the show.

Review explores consequences in a way that few comedies ever do. If you want to live the fullest life possible, then you’re probably going to lose all of your money and develop a coke addiction. Review took a concept that could have gone stale quickly and made it endlessly entertaining. The show ended this season on an odd note. It is the kind of plot point that seems tough to get out of. There has only been one season of Review but at this point, I trust Andy Daly and crew with just about anything.

Joffrey, you don’t deserve Natalie Dormer’s love. Image via IMDB

Moral of the story: Don’t get married in Westeros.

Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones was a big one, and it is one that every fan has been waiting for since season one. So for now, I will say SPOILER ALERT. If you don’t want SPOILERS for this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, do not read beyond this point. I put SPOILERS in bold/caps lock because you see, I’m trying to make a point.

Everybody who is still with me: have you watched the episode?

Can I spoil it for you?

Good.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, I am going to spend the rest of this article talking about JOFFREY’S DEATH. It is possible that a lot of this article will be written in caps lock, because after this episode, I feel like my brain is stuck in caps lock. Along with every other Game of Thrones fan, I have been waiting for this to happen since season one. While it seems wrong to ever root for the death of another human being, it never felt wrong to want Joffrey to die. During his run on the show, Joffrey had a direwolf killed, called for Ned Stark’s execution, and then taunted people who’s loved ones perished. Rooting for Joffrey death felt cathartic. This is what Romans must have felt like watching gladiator matches.

This is all a little weird then, given that Joffrey’s death only felt half-cathartic, though half is better than nothing at all. Maybe it is because I built it up so much in my mind and imagined much more insane scenarios for what his death would be. Maybe it was because I just pictured him being cut up into little pieces by Arya. Man, this show really makes a sociopath out of all of us.

This week’s episode, entitled “The Lion and the Rose,” was penned by George R.R. Martin himself. It seems fitting that he would write such an important episode, and while it is easy to complain about the fact that he hasn’t even finished writing the books yet, his involvement in the show is probably why it has remained so consistently good. While Joffrey doesn’t fall to the same sword that took Ned Stark’s head, he does get to die while literally drunk on his own insanity.

What ultimately makes this death so effective is the spectacular buildup to it. Joffrey spends this entire episode taunting everybody that he has a chance to. As the episode progresses, he gets meaner and meaner, and you are more ready than ever before to watch him die. In Westeros, there are some kings who are ruthless, yet good at their jobs. Joffrey was both ruthless and incompetent. To him, being king was an excuse to murder things. He would shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

The beauty of Game of Thrones is that it can make you hate a character in one episode, and then like them in the next one. For example, since the end of last season, Tywin Lannister has come off as more rational than ever before. Meanwhile, it is hard not to feel pity for Theon after he lost everything. It is the Clockwork Orange Effect: It is hard not to feel bad for somebody once they stop victimizing people and become a victim, if the cruelty inflicted on them is worse than the cruelty  they inflicted on others. Joffrey, however, is a special case. He was the only character who was never given a sense of love or understanding because he did not deserve it. The end of the Purple Wedding feels like this was a reward for making us sit through the Red Wedding deaths last season.

In just a few short seconds, we watch Joffrey as he painfully exit this world. For somebody who never seemed like he could survive on his own, it is fitting that Joffrey died in his mother’s arms.

Let me just remind everybody that this huge event happened in the second episode of this season. The death of a major villain is usually saved for some point near the climax. The usual approach allows for a satisfying ending and consequences that can be held off until the next season. Instead, Game of Thrones makes this happen in the beginning of a season. A dead king means a whole vortex of trouble is about to open up. The Thrones writers love to take on a challenge. The showrunners run into the danger, not away from it. This might have been one of the most anticipated events in the show’s history. Now that it has happened, it is hard to imagine what could top it. That is probably a probably a stupid thought to ponder, given that Westeros is an ever-expanding world filled with dragons and the undead.

In Westeros, every good deed must be met with something terrible, and the end of tonight’s episode saw Cersei accusing Tyrion of Joffrey’s murder. I have no idea whether Tyrion actually poisoned Joffrey or not. No matter how much he hates Joffrey, it seems like a dumb move for a man who loves to play the political game. Yet, he seemed completely unfazed as the authorities took him away, but that could also be because he was so elated that Joffrey was finally dead that he did not know how to process his emotions. Who will be king now? Will it be Chauncey from Mad Men? This is another narrative challenge that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be able to solve.

In the end, I am not even sure what exact point of this article is, which is probably not a good thing. Maybe it is to point out that there can be joyful moments in Westeros, but whether it is joy or pain, that moment will usually revolve around something morbid like death. That is just the world that these characters inhabit. Game of Thrones is the most unpredictable and ambiguous show on television. Nothing is certain in this world, not death, life, or morality.

One thing is certain though: Joffrey Baratheon is a total dick. There were a million ways you could have died, but the way that you eventually left this realm was as surprising as it was satisfying.

The college freshman dorm room poster of the future. Image via Business Insider

It’s the beginning of the end as we know it.

Tonight marks the first episode of the seventh season of Mad Men. While this is the last season of Mad Men, it will go on a little longer than expected, given that this season has been split in two halves. Splitting final chapters in two is a popular trend now, and it is the only thing that Breaking Bad, Nymphomaniac, and Divergent have in common.

The sixth season of Mad Men was a bit of a creative letdown that ended with a finale that promised a very important season to come. I am interested to see how these next two seasons will be structured. Either way, each episode will be incredibly important. Now that there is an end in sight, that means that each episode will be building to something bigger. Expect some important decisions, emotional revelations, and internet fan theories that prove to be completely wrong.

You still have a few more hours until the new season of Mad Men premieres. I decided to spend that time thinking about which episodes mattered to me the most. This show’s very best episodes prove that Mad Men is more than just a show about an ad agency in the 1960s. 

Maybe it is premature to be choosing the best episodes of Mad Men already, but I like racking up Internet points, people. Here are what I consider to be the five best episodes of Mad Men to date:

5. Shoot (Season One)

Betty Draper gets a lot of crap for being Mad Men‘s most boring, typically grating characters. Those criticisms aren’t necessarily wrong, but they overlook what a different character she was in season one, and how much of her downfall has to do with Don’s infidelity. Anyway, “Shoot” showed that Betty still has a spark of life left in her. It’s hard to forget how awesome Betty looks with a gun in hand and a cigarette in mouth. Images like this are probably the reason why America is so obsessed with guns and cigarettes. Plus, this episode has Pete Campbell making a good decision for once. It’s fun when a TV show lets its characters do something against type every once in a while.

4. Signal 30 (Season Five)

Once again, Connecticut is portrayed as “the land where white people move to the suburbs and then get sad that they don’t live in Manhattan anymore.” Okay, so that’s fairly accurate. In some ways, “Signal 30″ is one of the least eventful episodes of Mad Men ever, yet it feels like the whole world has come crashing down once it ends. Mad Men has always been about the fear of not knowing what will happen next, but “Signal 30″ is about the fear that nothing better is yet to come. Plus, this is the episode where Lane punches Pete in the face. While this was a long time coming, you will end up feeling bad for Pete. Leave it to Mad Men to make you feel bad about something that should have been cathartic.

All of those GIFs of Pete being punched in the face are fun, but they strip the moment of its context and OH GOD I’M POSTING IT I’M POSTING IT HELP ME

3. The Suitcase (Season Four)

Much has been said about “The Suitcase,” and most of that stuff is much deeper and better than anything I can ever come up with. Quite simply, “The Suitcase” contains the best writing of any Mad Men episode to date. This is the episode where all of the wounds in Don and Peggy’s contentious relationship finally opened. It is the episode where Don finally exposed some of his deepest insecurities. It’s the episode where Duck Phillips tries to poop in Roger’s chair. In short, “The Suitcase” contains everything I love about Mad Men.

2. Far Away Places (Season Five)

Season five was the best season of Mad Men yet, as it took the show to places well beyond what anybody could have imagined from its original premise. “Far Away Places” feels more like David Lynch than Matthew Weiner, with a majority of it feeling like it could have taken place in Don’s head. This episode is told in vignettes, and earns “legendary” status from Peggy’s movie theater encounter and Don and Megan’s fight over ice cream in a Howard Johnson’s. However, what truly makes “Far Away Places” a series best is Roger’s acid trip. You know, the one where Roger hears opera coming out of a bottle of whiskey as “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” also plays in the background. It might seem unfair to rank one episode off of one scene alone, but the scene really is that good.

1. Shut the Door. Have a Seat (Season Three)

This was the finale to season three, a season that was only occasionally good. To me, this is still the best episode of Mad Men. This is the one in which Don finally decides to jump the sinking ship that is Sterling Cooper in favor of a new company that will finally have his name on it. It is an episode filled with the kind of bold business decisions that might have been boring in other circumstances, but are so compelling here. But of course, no good thing happens on Mad Men without a bad thing happening first, and this exciting new chapter in Don’s life is marked by the complete disintegration of his marriage. As the show was beginning to get a little stale, “Shut the Door. Have a Seat” saw Mad Men tinker with its own formula with thrilling results. Again, Mad Men is about the uncertainty of the future. Yet, this is the first time Mad Men tried to embrace blind optimism, and it worked.

I can’t stop laughing at this. Image via Hulu

I have a theory about people who say they hate certain funny TV shows*: they’ve never actually watched a full episode of that show.

Maybe they have seen five minutes of the actual show, but mostly  they have just watched the commercials for it. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a cliche, but it applies especially well to comedy. Even I have fallen victim to the commercial trap before (a dumber version of me once said “that show “Arrested Development” looks stupid”), and it seems to really be taking a hold on “Kroll Show.” This is a shame, as “Kroll Show” also happens to be one of the funniest shows on television right now.

“Kroll Show” definitely doesn’t give off the best first impression. One guy dresses up as a woman, a bouncer, a gay man, and an old Jew, amongst many other characters. At first, this just sounds like a whiter version of an Eddie Murphy movie. But plug in some irony, and suddenly you’ve got something brilliant.

Here is the basic gist of the show: it’s a sketch show where Nick Kroll (you might know him as Ruxin on “The League”) plays a variety of different characters. Unlike “Saturday Night Live,” there is no audience or musical guests. Just pure madness.

“Kroll Show” is now a few episodes into its second season. Season two is usually when comedies tend to find their voice, but “Kroll Show” was already pretty confident throughout all of season one. However, that didn’t stop Kroll and his creative team from taking the show into some new territory. Probably a smart idea to change up the format before critics and bloggers (pffft those jerks) can complain that the show is getting stale.

But the show didn’t change too much. In season one, skits were broken apart by a brief monologue from Kroll, who told a story that somehow tied the theme of the episode together. This is common in shows helmed by stand-ups (see: “Seinfeld,” “Louie,” “Inside Amy Schumer”). Instead, he now brings out cast and crew members for mini interviews, which basically amount to a bunch of friends screwing around with each other. One-on-one interviews are common in comedy shows today; they serve as a replacement for the live audience as the surrogate between character and viewer. This show seems to have a small, loyal enough fan base that it no longer needs to tell us what it is.

“Kroll Show” doesn’t quite feel like a show that gets made anymore. It is a part of Comedy Central’s renaissance, in which they have actually started to put good comedians on TV. At times, “Kroll Show” doesn’t even feel like a sketch show. It shares a lot with the great “Mr. Show” in that it seems more determined to create a world as opposed to just a bunch of standalone sketches.

During each episode, characters and story lines tend to intertwine. One character will get a new reality show that allows them to become part of the life of another character. It’s a product of an age where it seems like just about anybody who is desperate enough can get their own show. In general, “Kroll Show” is like a comedic chameleon, as it can perfectly take on the form of a Bravo dating show, an action movie, and a Canadian teen drama all in the span of one episode.

But overall, “Kroll Show” is just hilarious. Sure, it can be hit-or-miss a lot of the time, but that’s what sketch comedy is most of the time anyway. Go back and watch episodes of “SNL” from any of its Golden Ages. For every Matt Foley there is a stinker that nobody remembers. What counts is when there is more gold. “Kroll Show” is definitely a sketch show made for the DVR age, with plenty of moments that get funnier on repeat viewings.

In terms of ambition and commitment to performance, Nick Kroll is pretty close to being a modern Sid Caesar. “Kroll Show” also proves that smart comedy about dumb people is the best kind of comedy out there. You probably won’t be able to get either of those out of just one commercial.

*This theory does not apply to “The Big Bang Theory.” I have watched a full episode and still rule that it is not funny.

Some of my favorite skits/moments (Some of these are just pieces of longer sketches):